Abstract

Background

In traditional medicine Cinnamon is considered a remedy for respiratory, digestive
and gynaecological ailments. In-vitro and in-vivo studies from different parts of the world have demonstrated numerous beneficial medicinal
effects of Cinnamomum zeylanicum (CZ). This paper aims to systematically review the scientific literature and provide
a comprehensive summary on the potential medicinal benefits of CZ.

Methods

A comprehensive systematic review was conducted in the following databases; PubMed,
Web of Science, SciVerse Scopus for studies published before 31st December 2012. The
following keywords were used: “Cinnamomum zeylanicum”, “Ceylon cinnamon”, “True cinnamon” and “Sri Lankan cinnamon”. To obtain additional
data a manual search was performed using the reference lists of included articles.

Conclusions

The available in-vitro and in-vivo evidence suggests that CZ has many beneficial health effects. However, since data
on humans are sparse, randomized controlled trials in humans will be necessary to
determine whether these effects have public health implications.